I’m under two deadlines at the moment. One is for edits to Witch Blood and the other is for The Darkest Kiss. It’s amazing how much deadlines drain me of creativity for everything else. The creativity suck only happens when I’m crunched, fortunately. Right now, I’m crunched. (Not badly. I’m not going to miss any of them.)

So, today, since I’m at a loss for anything to blog about, I want you to tell me something. I’ll give away three prizes, awarded by random drawing to three different winners. One autographed copy of Witch Fire, and two downloads from my EC backlist.

The summer is nearly over and autumn is settling in. What did you for your summer “vacation”?

I have happy news! Berkley bought three more books from me last week. For their sensation line, they bought the next (and final) two books in the Elemental Witches series and they also bought the first book in what I hope is the start of a new series. The novel, Wicked Enchantment, (title subject to change), is a sexy dark urban paranormal romance that features the fae.

I’m just glad I get to write some more!!! I’m very excited about Wicked Enchantment. I was hoping I’d get to pursue that one.

In view of my new sales, I thought I’d talk about my very first one. Actually, to talk about my first one I have to talk about my first two, since I sold to two publishers in the same week. After writing for close to ten years without any publishing luck, (I did take a hiatus in there too), it was nice to have two offers so close together.

The pubs were ImaJinn Books and Ellora’s Cave. The two books were Raven’s Quest (written under the name Joanna King) and Winter Pleasures: The Capture, respectively.

Raven’s Quest is a fantasy romance, the second book I ever wrote. It still has a very special place in my heart. Originally I thought that I would be writing non-erotic fantasy and paranormal romance. However this book turned out to be only one of two non-erotics I ever wrote. *g*

I can still remember getting that first phone call from the editor at ImaJinn. I was at the day job and was absolutely stunned when the phone rang and it was The Call…for ME. I thought maybe they had the wrong number or something. I’d won an RWA contest and Linda Kichline, the owner and one of the editors at ImaJinn, had been the final judge. She’d liked what she’d seen and requested the whole ms. Luckily, she’d liked the rest of the book too.

I thought when I finally got “The Call” I’d totally freak out, but I managed to keep my cool. At least until after I got off the phone with her, having accepted her offer, and practically had a heart attack in my cubicle. Good thing one of my fellow cube farm animals was there to help me through it.

That same week Winter Pleasures was accepted by Ellora’s Cave. The publishing gods were with me. WP was the result of a challenge to myself to write the hottest sex scene I possibly could. If I could do that, I promised myself I’d write an erotic romance. I wrote the scene and thought it was a ton of fun, so happily set about writing a book targeted at Ellora’s Cave.

That challenge to myself was fueled by a kerfuffle on one of the lists, actually. A relatively well known writer’s contest was discriminating against erotic romance authors and it made me so upset I decided to become one. Lucky for me I did since “Joanna King,” (the pen name I used for my non-erotics), never really went all that far. Anya Bast has done much better in the long run.

My husband and I finally saw the movie 300 last night. Yeah, I know. But we’ve got a baby at home so our days of jaunting to the theater to watch the latest flick are long gone.

Wow. Has anyone seen this movie? There was no body fat anywhere in the whole thing. I know because I looked. Er, a lot. Because, uhm, drool. I guess when I leaned over and told my husband I could feel myself ovulating just watching these actors he might not have appreciated it much. Heh.

And when they marched off to war, it was a full on man titty parade! I had to stop myself from fumbling for the remote control to pause and zoom in, (again with the non-husbandly appreciation).

Yeah, so, I might get it on dvd.

Ahem.

Aside from the exceptional eye candy, I liked the movie for other reasons. See, I am fully aware that I have the theatrical tastes of an adolescent boy. I will watch any movie that is based on a comic book character, no matter how bad it might be. (With the exception of Superman. He just doesn’t do it for me). My favorite by far is The Punisher. I absolutely love that one. It’s Frank Miller flick, btw, just like 300.

I loved the supernatural aspects of the movie. How the film felt not like your regular historical movie, but something with a paranormal edge. That owed, of course, to the fact the movie is based on a graphic novel. It felt like a graphic novel.

So, tell me, seen any good movies lately? Anything you want to tell me about? I love a good film…even if they do make me want to immediately start exercising once the credits roll, (don’t worry, the impulse faded pretty quickly. I didn’t damage my perfect non-exercising track record).

So I wrote “the end” on The Darkest Kiss today. The Darkest Kiss is a futuristic vampire romance (with a healthy dose of steam) that will be released in October 2008 from Berkley Heat. It’s not your run-of-the-mill vamp story. Trust me on this one. I don’t want to say much yet about the novel, but it’s set in a galaxy far, far away. It definitely bends a couple genres.

It’s always a good feeling to get to the end of a story and be able to type THE END. I always do it, too, even though it’s not like THE END makes it to print. It just makes me satisfied to be able to write it. It’s misleading, though. I still have over a month’s worth of revisions to do.

Revisions are where the most of my work is done. The writing is the fun part, the easy part…if there is an easy part. That’s all story, flow, creativity. The revision part of the process is analytical. It’s about moving scenes around, determining if there’s adequate tension, character development, ect. Making sure the pacing is all right. That’s not as fun as storyflowcreativity.

Right now the book is a partially molded lump of clay. During the revision I’ll finish molding it into something recognizable and then polish it to a high shine. Then I send it out to the critics, but that’s a different story.

So this next week I put aside the high word counts and get out my red pen. Wish me luck!

In my life there have been some books that have just plain stuck with me. Perhaps it was the characters, or the overall theme. Maybe it was the time in my life that I read them and the message they had for me right then. Maybe they were just damn good books. For whatever reason, they remain my all time favorite reads in fiction. Here are a few of mine….

Sunshine, by Robin Mckinley

Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast, by Robin Mckinley

Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay

The Mists of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley

The Grounding of Group Six, by Julian F. Thompson

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

What are some books that, for whatever reason, have just stayed with you over the years?

(I tried to link all these books, but Blogger doesn’t like me.)

I am back from an exhausting weekend trip, so please excuse me if this rambles a bit and then I fall asleep at the keyboard. My daughter, normally a very well-behaved, lovely and charming child, found her “spicy side” on this trip. Heh. And her lungs. She found her lungs at dinner at P.F. Chang’s last night. It was loud in there anyway, and I think she decided to just add to it. Why not? As a result, there was much yelling. I don’t think our neighbors thought it was cute. Whoops. Hey, it added ambiance…erm, a little.

So I’ve been thinking about my status as a self-proclaimed “plotter” lately. I think I’ve been lying to myself. I’m actually not a plotter, not completely. I’m sort of stuck somewhere on the continuum between plotter and pantster (someone who writes “by the seat of their pants,” without plotting out the story beforehand).

I do plot out my novels beforehand. I figure out the conflicts, internal and external. I make sure they mesh for the hero/heroine so as to get the optimal mix to fuel their relationship. Let’s face it, if you don’t have adequate conflict, you’re in deep trouble. I do character charts and interviews and what not.

And yet….

Here’s the thing, I don’t really know my characters until I write them. I don’t really know them until I put them in sticky situations and see how they react, see what choices they make. AND, since my character’s choices ultimately drive and direct the plot, I don’t really know the storyline until I write my characters. At least a little. It could be as few as two chapters before I really understand what makes them tick. It’s almost like a really in-depth character interview, those first couple chapters. After that, then I can plot out the book.

So, my synopses are more what you’d call “guidelines” than actual rules. I use my synopses as a path to follow, but I might stray a bit here and there because my characters turn out to be different people than I thought they were. Yeeessss, I’m aware that sounds pretty freakish, talking about my characters as though they’re real people. While some might describe me as a little eccentric, I promise I do have all my crayons in the box.

Hope you all had a great weekend! I’m going to go collapse now.

Dirty, low down contest. If you can spot the bit of movie dialogue in here, email me the movie and who says it (which character) to anya (at) yahoo.com. Don’t post it in the comments!!!! I’ll enter you in a contest to win a title from my EC backlist. Winner to be posted next Monday.

Recently the observation was made by someone just starting to read the romance genre that many romance novel heroines are rather feeble of mind, a bit weak, and TSTL. I had to stop and consider the heroines I’ve read and think about whether this was true or not. I came to the conclusion that, yes, sometimes romance novel heroines are. I’ve definitely read books in which she might be described this way.

At the same time, I’ve read many heroines who are strong (sometimes too strong), brainy, vulnerable, funny, stubborn, devious, intelligent, accident-prone, and flawed — or any combination of these traits and more. Basically, I’ve found as many different flavored heroines in the romances I read that I find personalities in real life.

In my own writing I tend to write very different characters from book to book. Some of my heroines are kick ass, yet have an edge of vulnerability. Some of them have no notion of their power in the beginning of the book, but find it by the end. Some of them are shy and unsure of themselves, others start off killing the bad guys from page one.

I think romance novels (or novels in any genre) would be dull if all the heroines were the same.

The observation was also made that readers read for the heroes, not the heroine. That the heroine should be a little understated to make room for the reader to fall in love with the hero. That kind of worried me because I don’t think I’m doing that in my books. I mean, I definitely want the readers to fall in love a little bit with the hero, but in general I find myself identifying more with the heroine when I’m writing and, therefore, I don’t really write her “understated”. In fact, most of the journey is hers. She’s the one who changes and grows the most throughout the story (generally).

So, I put these questions to you, dear readers. What do you want to see in a romance novel heroine? Do you even care about the heroine at all, or is it all about the hero?

I was going to write about picking character names, but I’ve seen so many interesting discussions around about villains, (inspired by the new Harry Potter movie, I think), I decided to write about bad guys instead. Because I luuuurve writing villains. They are so much fun. I love reading them too.

Jack in Pirates of the Caribbean is a fav of mine. He’s out for his own gain, damn whoever gets in his way, and yet he has a noble, self-sacrificing streak that just won’t be denied. The fact that his character possesses these light and dark qualities makes him very compelling to me because in real life not everyone is all good or all bad. Some people might tip the scales a bit in one direction or the other, but, really, we all have a little of both in us. Give me a bad guy with depth and I’m a happy girl.

Of course, I have written some 100% evil villains. Aloysius Finch in Water Crystal comes to mind immediately, although even he has a penchant for guiltily confessing his sins to his lovers. Even he has a slight conscience.

I don’t like moustache twirlers, the villains who are bad “just because”. I want to know what their motivations are, what their histories are, what made them into such a bad guy (or girl) in the first place. I love it when I can feel just a little bit of sympathy for the villain, even while hating their guts. Those characters are the most fun to read (and write).

Then there’s the redeemed villain, the bad guy gone good and who deserves his own story and his own chance at love. Drayden Lex in my Embraced series is the only villain I’ve ever redeemed. At the moment he’s being punished severely by the Dominion. I still, er, need to write his book. So he’s not quite redeemed yet, but I’ll get around to it.

Tell me, dear readers, who are some of your favorite villains in books and movies? One commenter will win their choice from my Ellora’s Cave backlist. Winner announced next Monday.

If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn’t brood. I’d type a little faster.

- Isaac Asimov

But first! Breaking news! Hee.

My agent and I accepted an offer from Berkley Heat for the publication of The Darkest Kiss, (They may want to change the title). It’s a futuristic vampire romance and will release in 2008. New sale! News sales make me a happy girl.

Of course, this also means I have a new deadline. *whimper* I just met the last deadline (for Witch Blood) a week ago. I also have another project to finish — that being the proposals for the next two books in the Elemental Witches series.

So, today I want to talk about deadlines and meeting them. I know a lot of the readers of this blog are writers or are aspiring writers, so it’s a good topic.

Deadlines are our friends. No, really! They are. They force us to write. Because otherwise, I don’t know about you, but I have a tendency to let my priorities wander a bit. *cough* The laundry calls to me. The floors need to be cleaned. The pool needs swimming in, gosh darn it! The Internet just NEEDS to be surfed. Oh, and we won’t mention all the books that cry out for my reading attention.

And, of course, it’s summer. If you live in the U.S., you’re conditioned to think of summer as fun time, not work time. It’s time to go to the beach, have picnics on blankets, play volleyball. But this time of the year, for me at least, summer means the sweat of work on my brow. Good thing I love my job.

So The Darkest Kiss is due in a little under three months. I have 55,000 more words to write until it’s done, then I need to revise and polish. The revision and polishing part of writing a book is always the most labor intensive for me.

Here’s how I do it — I set a word count goal for myself for every writing day I have. Since I work a part time job, I have two “dead” writing days a week. If I get anything done on those days, it’s just gravy. Every writing day I have a goal of 3,000 words, that’s about nine to ten pages in my current manuscript set up (font, ect). Just an aside, I hate courier with the burning passion of ten thousand suns. I use Times New Roman and then switch it to Courier when I send my ms.

Luckily, I have a synopsis to follow because there’s nothing worse than getting hung up and blocked on deadline. Oy. After that, I turn off my internal editor — that little voice inside your head that says, “Eh that sucks. You need to revise that.” blah, blah — and I just write. The internal editor can come out to play during the revision process. That’s when that little critical voice is most useful. When I write the first draft, I just want things to flow. I’m more creative that way and good bits of dialogue and stuff come out without the internal editor shutting it all down.

If you’re not on a deadline like me, nine to ten pages a day might be excessive. But, really, if you can get yourself to just write four pages a day, or even just set your goal at one page, you’ll be amazed at how quickly those words add up.

Of course, quality is more important than quantity. There are some days when I get just a couple paragraphs squeezed out, but they were so hard won that they count for my whole day’s labor. You know, like paragraphs that change the direction of the plot for the better or go a long way in advancing character development. So there are no hard and fast rules.

But I do recommend locking that internal editor up in a closet for a while. Otherwise writers can get so wrapped up in revising one piece over and over that they never make any forward progress. If you’re in RWA, you probably know at least one writer with a rampant internal editor. Someone who is stuck on the first three chapters of their ms and just keeps rewriting and polishing, ad naseum, and never manages to add to the story.

Plus, if you just set your goal for one page a day, you will likely find yourself getting caught up in the story and writing more than that. Writing usually begets more writing. It’s a terrible affliction.

Finally, challenge yourself! Participate in NANOWRIMO or head on over to Alison Kent’s blog and check out her Seventy Days of Sweat writing challenge. I’m doing it!

Okay, so writers and aspiring writers out there, share with me how you meet your deadlines or how you set writing goals for yourself. What’s your process?

~*~

The winner of my contest from last Monday, chosen by random drawing, is Estella! Congrats! And, yes, I’d say that was a pretty damn good birthday, Estella.

I loved reading all your answers. Thanks to all who commented.